Are women better language learners?

And the results are in!

At busuu we are always looking to find out what conditions lead to optimum language learning. This time, we looked at gender to see if the rumours are true – are women really better language learners? The results were certainly interesting!

Commitment to learning

A key difficulty for language learners is staying committed. Female busuu users complete more language learning units and, consequently, are more likely to achieve their goals.

Testing and Reward

Women are more likely to test themselves on their knowledge retention but they also like to trade in the rewards for their efforts. Interestingly, they prefer to buy ladybirds for their language garden, whilst men prefer kites!

Community interaction

Women are often considered to be very sociable, but is that true on busuu? It turns out it is. Women correct more exercises than men and are more likely to use the busuutalk function to converse with native speakers.

So who wins the battle of the sexes?

Judging by our data, women on busuu tend to be very committed to their language-learning, whether it’s learning new vocabulary, revising known words or practising what they’ve learned. However, this doesn’t mean that women are better at language learning, just that their strategies are different. It seems that our male users in fact tend to be more focused on finishing one course rather than several, and prefer to build up points rather than spend them!

What do YOU think?

What’s your reaction to these statistics? Do you think this is reflective of language learning in classroom situations? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.

4 COMMENTS:

Michael Bonney

Personally, I think sex really doesn’t have much (if anything) to do with the ability to learn a language, or with how well you do it. I am a guy and although I may not spend a huge amount of time on busuu (which yes, I do regret) I have been able to successfully learn French and Swedish to a respectable level, and I am currently in the process of learning other languages as well, ranging from Welsh to Japanese. I would consider myself a dedicated language learner and I speak to many natives (or rather, as many as I can find :P) – Overall I think learning languages is not something to be frowned at, and just because one gender may be better on busuu doesn’t mean that the guys should give up 🙂 Courage to you!

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Ghetto_Gyaru

“Aww” @ the guys sulking at the statistics! Get over it! 😛
I agree with the 1st comment that gender shouldn’t be a relevant factor but even if the results WERE the other way around, I would have to accept the data as fact based on the collected evidence e.g. I know that men are proven to have better hand/eye co-ordination but women are more cautious drivers. Don’t hate the statistics, hate the survey xx
(That said, I love Busuu because it allows PEOPLE to study at their own pace. How about a survey on language learning efficiency according to nationality? Or would that be TOO controversial?? 😛 )